A neo-Nazi shrine made from the ruins of Hitler's luxury retreat

Published: Friday, April 2, 2010, 13:44 [IST]

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London, Apr. 2 (ANI): A chapel located in the German state of Bavaria has become a shrine for neo-Nazis after it was revealed that it had been built with marble and grainte taken from the ruins of Adolf Hitler's luxury retreat.

While the chapel was built in 1997, its only now that the Bavarian government has admitted that the material from the wreckage of Hitler's retreat, the Berghof in Berchtesgaden, was used in its construction.

According to The Telegraph, a swastika was reportedly found carved into one of the wooden beams of the Wegmacher Chapel, and since then a number of shaven-headed, leather jacket-wearing 'pilgrims' have been leaving behind notes of praise to Hitler and candles burning in his memory.

Deploying materials from Hitler's home is a contradiction of a post-war policy in Bavaria not to use anything from the sites associated with Nazism for such projects, the paper says.

A decade ago, when the government was demolishing underground bunkers at the Berghof, it deployed security guards with dogs to stop locals entering them and making off with souvenirs.

However, the bricks and flagstones were taken away to a stonemason's yard and later used for the chapel.

Some locals are calling for the chapel to be demolished.

But the chapel's architect, Matthias Ferwagner, said: "You can hardly find a mason in the region who isn't storing columns and stone blocks from Obersalzberg."

"The idea was that the stones somehow needed to be cleansed, blessed," Ferwagner said. He added that he envisioned the roadside chapel as a place where people with "evil intentions," could stop "and purge their minds."

Hitler's Berghof was bombed by Allied planes towards the end of the war when he was holed up in his underground bunker in Berlin. (ANI)